Burning For Him by Austin Bates

JUSTIN: Before Tyler, it wasn’t like I wanted to die. I just didn’t really want to live. All the crap I went through as a kid, then all the crap I went through in the Marines, now just making a living by beating the crap out of guys who owe my boss money? It’s like I’ve spent my entire life on a merry-go-round of trauma, PTSD and nightmares. So yeah, sue me for wanting to get off. But then along comes Tyler. Maybe there’s no such thing as fate, maybe its pure chance that keeps me bumping into him at just the right times. After the second or third time a scrawny little thing half your size accidentally saves your life, you kinda start reading into things, you know?

So maybe the universe did send him my way. If he’s some kinda apology for the hand I’ve been dealt until now…its not a bad one, gotta admit. He makes me laugh. He lets me cry. He researches therapists and tells me I don’t need anyone to fight my battles, but he wants to fight them alongside me all the same. He’s gonna have my baby. And call me crazy, but for the first time in a long time, he’s got me believing that maybe I’ve got a life worth living after all.

TYLER: Out of my comfort zone doesn’t even begin to describe Justin. Try out of my comfort hemisphere. Now keep going. I’m the next best thing to a virgin. I referee dungeons and dragons games for a living. He’s a tattooed, motorcycle-riding, ex-army badass. His muscles have muscles. His issues have issues. And somehow, its like I’ve become his protector. It sounds ridiculous even to me. Some cosmic joke, definitely. But its like I was put in his path for a reason. I can’t just walk away when I know I can help him. And call me crazy, but he might be everything I’ve been looking for too. He’s the furthest thing from the picture I had of my Mr. Right. But now I can’t picture anyone else.